Wave after wave of Yuan Power crashed against the Azure Dragon crouched above the Ji mansion. The beast shuddered with each hit but held. Its scales caught the light and gave nothing back.
Luo Jiaoyang let his hands fall, chest tight. "He's younger than all of us."
Fan Yao shook his head. "Yuan Power is ninety percent talent, ten percent work. Ji Bozai has both. It was never going to go our way."
"That doesn't matter! He's dangerous. If we don't stop him now, what happens when he does something worse?"
"Look at what we're up against. We hit him with everything, right after his match with Xue Sheng, and it didn't even scratch the dragon. How exactly do you plan to stop him?"
"You're just scared of him!"
Fan Yao's face went dark. He opened his mouth to fire back when Chu He stepped between them. "Enough. Both of you."
They had come together, righteous and unified. Now they were snapping at each other in the street. Luo Jiaoyang exhaled hard and started pulling back his Yuan Power.
Whether from carelessness or bad timing, as he swept his hand back, someone at the side door went down.
"Ah!"
Everyone froze. Fan Yao shot Luo Jiaoyang a sharp look. Luo Jiaoyang threw up both hands. "I didn't mean to!"
Servants poured out of the doorway and surrounded the fallen figure. Luo Jiaoyang pushed forward to look.
A young woman lay on the ground, eighteen or nineteen at most, skin pale as jade, slight and still. Her hands pressed to her chest. Her eyes, when they opened, were full of pain.
"I'm sorry!" Luo Jiaoyang bowed low. "I'm so sorry."
Ming Yi let out a soft groan. She raised her eyes slowly, looking every bit the wronged and fragile girl. "This servant only wanted to go out and fetch antidote for the Master. If I wasn't allowed through the gate, you could have just said so. Why hurt me?"
"I truly didn't intend to— wait." He blinked. "Which master?"
"Which master would there be?" Her maids helped her upright, unsteady on her feet. She raised a fan to her face, voice tight with restrained feeling. "There's only one Master Ji in this mansion." She looked at the crowd, hurt and indignant. "It's bad enough you're all out here ganging up on him. Do you have to do it while he's like this?"
The group exchanged glances.
Ji Bozai was poisoned? Since when? He'd walked out of the selection meeting yesterday on his own feet. Was she playing them?
But the girl didn't look like she was performing. Her brows were drawn, her hands still pressed to where she'd been hit. She looked genuinely shaken and genuinely angry.
Luo Jiaoyang softened his voice. "How was your master poisoned?"
"How would I know?" Ming Yi looked at him like the question was absurd. "He came back from the meeting yesterday like that. Blood everywhere. Physician Fang came this morning and barely stabilized him." She pulled in a breath and let it out. "He told me not to make a fuss over it. So fine. You can keep going. Just let me through, because if Master Ji's condition worsens while I'm standing here arguing with you, your win won't mean anything."
Luo Jiaoyang's face went red. He turned to Fan Yao, helpless.
Fan Yao was quiet, thinking. "I noticed earlier that something was off. If Bozai were at full strength, the dragon wouldn't just be sitting there. It would have come for us. But I didn't think it was this serious."
"He's fighting all of us while poisoned?" Luo Jiaoyang dragged a hand through his hair and called out to the others still pressing the attack. "Stand down! Everyone stop!"
Ming Yi watched him, cautious, like she expected the order to be a trick.
He gave her a tired smile. "We're not here to be villains. We came because a man died yesterday. That's all."
"If a law was broken, the Grand Judge handles it," Ming Yi said, genuinely puzzled. "You do know that's what he's for?"
They knew. They knew that death at the selection meeting was understood to be part of the risk. But Xue Sheng had been—
Fan Yao stopped. "Was Ji Bozai poisoned by Xue Sheng?"
"Impossible." Chu He shook his head. "Xue Sheng wouldn't do that. Not at a sanctioned meeting."
No one said anything. But the thought had already landed. If someone else had poisoned Ji Bozai, the whole city would have erupted. He was too important to touch. The only person who could have done it and faced no consequences was someone who was already dead.
The silence stretched.
Luo Jiaoyang held on a little longer. "We don't know what happened in there. The man can't tell us his side. We only came to... talk to Master Ji. To hear it from him."
"Of course. Given the circumstances, there's no reason to keep imposing..."
Ming Yi gave no indication she understood what they were leaving unsaid. She saw them step back from the gate, thanked them briefly, and left with her maids, heading in the direction of the medicine shops.
She turned the corner and doubled back immediately, slipping in through the west side door.
"Miss!" Nanny Xun came hurrying over. "Are you hurt? I heard you fell."
"Look at me." Ming Yi spread her arms and turned in a slow circle. "Not a scratch." She glanced back toward the gate. "Have they gone?"
"Still out front," Nanny Xun said, a small smile on her face. "But they've stopped. They just need somewhere to put their dignity now. Master Meng is going out to help them find it."
She reached out and brushed the dust from Ming Yi's skirt, unhurried and gentle.
Ji Bozai had always operated the same way: you either matched him or you got out of his path. There was no middle ground, no explanations offered. It had never been a problem before. But today, injured and refusing to show it, the whole household had watched helplessly from the inside.
Then Miss Ming walked out that door.
She said what needed saying. Simply, directly, without making it a performance. The servants at the gate had listened and felt something loosen in their chests.
Their master was not a bad person.
Nanny Xun had thought of Ming Yi as a sweet girl, charming and easy to like. Now she saw something else. The girl had no title, no formal standing in this house. But she'd walked into the middle of that standoff for him without hesitating. That counted for more than bloodline or ceremony.
She hoped the Master would see it too. Even if a proper mistress came later, this one deserved to be remembered.
They walked slowly back toward the main courtyard. A shadow moved ahead of them, faster, taking a different path.
Ji Bozai was sitting up when Zheng Qiao came through the window. Some color had returned to his face. He looked up before the man had even straightened.
"Is she alright?"
Zheng Qiao stood by the window. A beat passed.
"Your dancer," he said, "is more than capable. She'll be fine."